Beep, Bop, Bugger off! (Pico x BF/Keith)

• Chapter 8

The coffee shop was a common meeting ground for Keith and Pico. Keith only recently realised how big of a deal a clean room was for Pico, so he felt guilty almost coming over. Even when Pico brought up that he had begun getting used to it, saying that Keith was allowed to drop by every now and again he still felt awful.

But neither were too phased by the coffee shop. It had a really comforting atmosphere, nice staff, and nice drinks. They'd sometimes vent a little to each other, but it was mostly small talk. They had been simply chatting about quickly changing topics and leaning on each other as of late.

Pico sat quietly at the table, hearing the jingle of the bell at the door at about the same time, maybe a little later, that Keith walked in. He looked up, seeing Keith with that girl he could never remember the name of.

"But she was actually super sweet, Molly! You would have loved to meet her!"

Molly giggled. "I'm sure."

Keith sat down next to Pico, who looked a bit... uncomfortable.
"Hey, Pico! Sorry I'm late, I wanted to bring Molly around this time."

"I was going to stay home, but he insisted..." Molly rested her hand atop Keith's, intertwining fingers. Pico felt even more uneasy.

"...That's alright." He muttered, looking down. For some reason, he wasn't fond of Keith's girlfriend. She was nice, and thought it was funny how much Keith would talk about her, whether complaining or complimenting her, but it filled him with an emotion he couldn't put his finger on.

Oh well. He knew he was probably just gonna third wheel this one. Keith was more likely to talk to Molly. He seemed to be in mid-conversation, too. He just exhaled heavily, closed his eyes and ignored it.

"Hold on, I'll be right back." Keith laughed and got up, leaving to the restrooms. Molly and Pico sat awkwardly with a gap in between them, the uncomfortable air causing a booming silence.

It was pretty clear neither of them could start a conversation, they has that in common. Keith was the extrovert who adopted them both. The looked off in opposite directions, Pico now feeling so uneasy that he couldn't just block it out anymore.

Molly cleared her throat.
"So... Pico... what, uh... do you and Keith usually do when you come here?" She didn't make eye contact with him.

"...oh. Uh... talk." Pico kept his gaze away.

"J...Just talk, huh? Anything specific you talk about?"

"...no."

"Are..." Molly turned her head over, her eyebrows barely furrowed. "...are you sure?"

Pico looked right back at her. "...yeah."

"You sound uncertain, but I'll take your word for it." Molly sighed. Pico blinked, confused. Confused in the way he had no idea what was going on. Molly had this weird expression she usually held, no matter what tone her voice was in or how she looked when she spoke she always seemed the same. Pico wasn't fond of it. He didn't know how Keith put up with it, when he also clearly couldn't tell tone well.

"Sorry?" Pico didn't know if he should have apologised or reassured her of anything. He didn't know anything. Where was Keith? He didn't want to talk to her.

"My bad... I mean I just... I get really worried that Keith's gotten bored of me. Well, he probably has, but," Molly took a breath. "He leaves a lot earlier than he usually does. He still talks to me, but..."

Pico couldn't help but feel... guilty, almost. "Oh. I'm sorry."
Granted, his responses didn't say as much.

"It's fine. He just seems to talk to you a lot, I just wanted to make sure that... oh, but, if you're only covering for him, that's okay too." Molly smiled to hope she made it clear she was being genuine. Keith came back out and sat down.

"Hey, did I miss something? Have we ordered yet?"

"Nope."

"Great! Then we should do that now. Hey, Pico, do you just want what we usually get?"

"...Huh? Oh. Yeah."

"Your responses are a little dry today, are you alright?" Keith tilted his head. Pico blinked again.

"...yeah. Tired, is all."
Why was that his go to lie? Whatever, it worked every time.

"Well, alright... Molly, what do you want?"

"Oh, just tea."

"Okie-dokie!"

Pico just hoped that Keith didn't bring Molly next time, too.